A biography for Sidney Poitierhasn’t been written yet.
“My father was very big on marriage.”
“A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.”
“I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.”
“As a man, I've been representative of the values I hold dear. And the values I hold dear are carryovers from the lives of my parents.”
“I had learned something of Miami from people who had visited there, so I knew what to expect.”
“I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.”
“So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.”
“I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.”
“In America, it is difficult to be your own man.”
“But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.”
“I'm a good person.”
“History passes the final judgment.”
“I had two roles for which I compromised.”
“I'm not a library.”
“I lived in a country where I couldn't live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn't go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except for those put aside for people of my colour or caste.”
“Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.”
“Since I couldn't actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.”
“An appreciable number of directors have shifted to lower-cost films, allowing them to be satisfied with a more modest return.”
“Okay listen, you think I'm so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value - to you I say, I'm not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you.”
“I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.”